Priority is claimed to Korean Patent Application No. 2004-12537, filed on Feb. 25, 2004, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method of horizontally growing carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and a device having the same, and more particularly, to a method of horizontally growing CNTs of uniform diameter from holes in an alumina template and a device having the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
The electric and mechanical properties of CNTs have been intensively studied to apply to various devices and applications. CNTs can be formed by vertically and horizontally growing methods. CNTs formed using the vertically growing method are used as an electron emission source in a field emission display (FED). Also, such CNTs may be used as a field emission source in a backlight device for a liquid crystal display (LCD), for example.
Horizontally grown CNTs may be applied to inter-connectors, Micro Electro Mechanical System (MEMS) sensors, horizontal field emitter tips, and the like.
In the prior art, an electric field is applied between two electrodes between which a patterned catalyst is interposed so as to horizontally grow CNTs. In such a horizontally growing method, it is not easy to accurately control the magnitude of a catalyst. Thus, it is difficult to uniformly control the diameter of CNTs. Also, yield of the CNTs is low and an electric field must be applied.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,515,339 discloses a method of horizontally growing CNTs from catalysts which are formed in a shape of nanodots, nanowires, or stripes, between which a predetermined space is formed, and on which a vertical growing preventing layer is disposed. However, in this method, it is difficult to uniformly control the diameter of the CNTs.